Jonathan Storm

Angel is more straight-ahead action than Buffy, but it is a spin-off that twirls terrificly. Plunked behind Buffy, it completes the most joyously entertaining two hours on television. [5 Oct 1999, p.E01]

David Zurawik

In the pilot, at least, Whedon manages to capture some of the same "Buffy" sensibility -- a rare combination of sexual energy, irony, intelligence, hot bodies, cool moves, action, menace and comic relief. The challenge is to sustain that tricky tone for a full season. [5 Oct 1999, p.1E]

Steve Johnson

Angel turns out to be as nimble, in its own way, as "Buffy" itself, and Boreanaz a revelation. It helps matters that Whedon has said his primary focus this year will be on the progeny, not the parent. [4 Oct 1999, p.1]

Charlie McCollum

The good news is that the folks behind "Buffy" -- notably writer-creator Joss Whedon -- have come along for this new chapter in a vampire's life and, at least for the first episode, have brought their wit, style and keen sense of pop culture with them. [4 Oct 1999, p.1C]

Ken Tucker

Some weeks, the series works beautifully, moving along like the otherworldly detective show it's meant to be. ... But other times Angel can tip too far into jokiness—or, worse, come off like a supernatural version of hollow USA Network shows such as Silk Stalkings.

Hal Boedeker

Matthew Gilbert

Angel the WB's new child of "Buffy," is no ordinary spinoff, and it has the potential to become a witty hour of unearthly allegory in its own right. If it can maintain a sense of humor about itself, Angel, which stars David Boreanaz as Buffy's brooding former beau, may become one of those rare spinoffs that isn't merely a flat-out cash-in. [5 Oct 1999, p.D1]

Terry Kelleher

Robert Bianco

At heart, Angel is another Whedon treatise on the need to accept responsibility and to move past atonement to engagement. But Whedon never overemphasizes his deeper meanings, and neither should we. [5 Oct 1999, p.1D]

James Poniewozik

Besides its hulking, gloomy lead and self-absorbed-as-ever foil Cordelia, Angel also borrows Buffy's stylish thrills and its flashes of humor, sharp and surprising as teeth on your neck in a dark alley. Here's hoping it ultimately infuses more originality into the dynastic bloodline as well.

Laura Fries

As good a couple as he and Sarah Michelle Gellar made, Boreanaz was too boxed in by the "Buffy" love story. The actor, formerly tagged by some as just another pretty face, is given much more to do here and proves that he can handle the load. [4 Oct 1999, p.4]

Mark Dawidziak

Barry Garron

The premiere of Angel suggests this is a fairly grim and humorless series, though perhaps not entirely predictable. With no Buffy to offset the intensely glowering and eternally brooding Angel (David Boreanaz), the former love of her life, the spinoff becomes a sort of "Touched By a Vampire," a show in danger of taking itself far too seriously and the audience far too lightly. [4 Oct 1999]